Pattern Magic lecture with the author, Tomoko Nakamichi

It was a great honor to have the writer and playful mind behind the notorious Pattern Magic pattern cutting textbooks come and do a special lecture at Bunka Fashion College the other day. She basically spent three hours explaining one of her techniques (The Quick-turn, in which you can draft on a flat pattern a lovely twist into the fabric, creating drapey folds. The twist then sews into any seam shape you like. It sounds difficult, but it was really easy. ) She gave us lots of little tricks, like changing the shape of the neckline before even beginning, to allow for the stretching that will happen later.I love these textbooks! A lot of the techniques are easy-to-learn, and some are straight-up obvious once you try them once.

I also teach my students some of her techniques in my class. It was so lovely to meet Nakamichi Sensei!! I hope she comes back again, and teaches us one of her harder ones.

“Drape is a play on light & shadow”

“Make it flat, then fix it in 3-D. Patternmaking is a synthesis of flat and 3D techniques”

After serving many years as a professor at Bunka Fashion College, Ms. Nakamichi currently delivers lectures and holds courses on design making, both in Japan and overseas. Tomoko Nakamichi has written three books : Pattern Magic, Pattern Magic 2 and Pattern Magic Stretch

Here are some excerpts from her books:

I’m sorry about the photos I took below. They look like I took them with a potato. Can you figure out what we were making?

She had the original piece that was on the cover of the first book!

Syban V., our second year student who will be the very first student to show her graduate collection in this course. Some of the various techniques Nakamichi Sensei teaches, in half-scale. Yes~ HALF~!!

These are beautiful-thanks so much for sharing. I found your blog yesterday and I’ve really been enjoying browsing through your archives. So much useful information! The photos do not look potato-y at all!

Thank you very much for this info about Nakamichi Tomoko sensei, a friend of mine was crazy to find something about this sensei, she want to write about her, but it is hard to find some info about her in the internet, this friend of mine also bought a book but there is so little info about Nakamichi sensei.

hello, Daphne, can you please you put me in touch with her? My wife, a fashion design student, is just fascinated by her ideas, and she wants to thank her for inspiration, even in marchine-translated Japaneese!

Thanks for getting in touch. I’m very pleased to hear that your wife is a fan! Her books are awesome. Unfortunately she is no longer at Bunka, so I can’t put you in touch with her. She is currently a professor at a university in Kyoto. Please see her page here: https://www.kyoto-seika.ac.jp/edu/faculty/nakamichi-tomoko/

Do you know if Tomoko Nakamichi is planning any visits to Europe in the near future? I am a designer / maker, and teacher of pattern cutting and I am very keen to attend a workshop or lecture. I’m even considering visiting Japan for the purpose, but I don’t speak or understand Japanese, so it wouldn’t be that useful! I would be very grateful for any help or information you can give me, thank you :-)
Bobbie
My website: http://www.bobbiesroom.co.uk